X-Message-Number: 7444 Date: Tue, 07 Jan 1997 12:21:31 -0700 From: David Brandt-Erichsen <> Subject: Australia: statement from Des Carnes The following is a statement by Des Carnes, who wrote the software for the "death machine" used in the two Australian physician aid-in-dying cases. January 7th 1997 The Australian gets it wrong In a piece entitled "Legal bungle fuels death Act row" by D.D. McNicoll and Maria Ceresa, The Australian, Tuesday January 7th, has totally misrepresented the situation in the Northern Territory regarding the legal and practical requirements for the use of the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act. The article states, in part:- "Pressure to overturn the Northern Territory's controversial euthanasia legislation increased last night after it was revealed that no medical specialist was needed to sign the consent form for those wishing to end their lives ... Mrs Mills' five-week search for a specialist's signature was unnecessary". The fact of the matter is that the small group of "30 to 40" Territory resident specialists has decided that they will make the the Act unworkable. In the words of Professor Peter Baume, it is "an industrial matter", a boycott by the vast majority of the specialist group to even see a patient seeking euthanasia. Without their participation, in confirming the diagnosis of the terminal nature of the illness, the signature of a second GP in addition to a psychiatrist is of no avail. Health Minister Burke admitted yesterday that whereas only 90% of doctors are opposed to voluntary euthanasia, 98% of the specialist group, whose participation is a necessity for the Act to work, are opposed. As the legislation now stands, this elite group of specialists exercises a pivotal role in the implementing of the legislation, and numerous of its members have publicly declared they will work to destroy it. That is why patients seeking assistance to die are driven, as was Janet Mills, to desperate measures. Janet Mills endured 3 weeks of refusals by NT specialists to even see her, and as a last resort she decided to publicly appeal for their assistance through the media. No further evidence is required of the hostile attitude of the specialist group in the NT to the legislation than the half page advertisement taken out by some of their members in the NT News, Saturday July 13th, in which they state:- " ... we will in no way involve ourselves with assisted suicide under the Act." The requirement that an elite professional group that is "98% opposed" to the right of the terminally ill to end their own lives, be involved for the Act to work, in opposition to polls which indicate over 75% of Australian citizens support the right, is indicative of the deficiencies in the legislation. It would be all right, if Territory specialists want to wash their hands of the issue, if the requirement for specialist confirmation of the illness were, like the psychiatric assessment, not limited by residency to the NT. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=7444